School of Humanities and Social Science Division of Social Science 223 Early Arithmetic Skills in Children Supervisor: CHENG Chen / SOSC Student: WONG Oi Shuen / QSA Course: UROP 1000, Summer Children’s arithmetic skills develop through stages, reflecting broader cognitive growth such as working memory, problem solving and numerical understanding (Träff, Östergren, Skagerlund, & Skagenholt, 2025). In this summer semester, the UROP project “Early Arithmetic Skills in Children” led by Professor CHENG Chen has been focused on working memory and numerical skills through visual and arithmetic means. For this programme, I am collaborating with lab seniors on two research projects, including Many Number Foundation (MN) and Working Memory Update (WMU), to investigate the cognitive processes underlying children’s arithmetic skill development. The Many Number Foundation project evaluates children’s early numeracy skills, such as quantity recognition and counting, through visual and interactive tasks. The Working Memory Update project examines the relationship between working memory and arithmetic problemsolving by measuring children's ability to retain and manipulate numerical information while performing calculations. Future-Oriented Thinking, Planning, and Decision-Making over Development Supervisor: CHENG Chen / SOSC Student: HUANG Ka Ching / GCS Course: UROP 1000, Summer This study examines two critical aspects of cognitive development in children aged 2.5 to 7.5 years: working memory updating (WMU) and error-driven learning processing. Through two experimental paradigms—the WMU task (5.0-7.5 years) and a success-failure (S&F) ball-catching paradigm (2.5-4.0 years)—we investigated age-related changes in cognitive control and adaptive learning responses. Results demonstrated significant developmental progression in working memory capacity (p < .001) and enhanced learning following initial task failure. The WMU task revealed improved memory updating with age (r = .72 with digit span), while the S&F paradigm showed initial failure enhanced subsequence learning from instructional demonstrations compared to initial success conditions (χ² = 18.3, p < .001). These findings contribute to our understanding of executive function development and have implications for educational strategies targeting cognitive and emotional growth during early childhood. The study employed rigorous experimental protocols, including computerized memory tasks and behavioral observation methods, to capture these developmental changes.
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